The World She Forgot
by BloodRedPhantom
Summary: After the final battle with Naraku, Kagome was sent home...not to the place she had come to know, but instead to the place she had forgotten—Amestris. Many years ago, she had saved her father from having to see Truth by sacrificing herself in his place, causing her to end up in Japan without her memories. But with the final battle done, it was time for her to return.
1. Back Home

**Red:** I know I shouldn't be writing another story when I've already started two other stories, but eh, I'm going to do it anyway.

I absolutely loved Fullmetal Alchemist years ago, but as time went on, it had lessened over the years. I mean, don't get me wrong, I still loved it, but I wasn't as hyped as when I first watched it.

But that has changed. I'm rewatching Brotherhood with some friends of mine, which is causing me to go through my second hype phase. :P

To celebrate (I guess) I decided to write a crossover with my favorite female character and favorite male character.

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or Fullmetal Alchemist, if that wasn't obvious enough. They belong to their rightful owners. (I mean, why would the creators be on this website writing fanfics?)**

 **Notice!** This is going to follow the story of Brotherhood, but will probably make references back to some things that happened in the first series.

 **Summary:** After the final battle with Naraku, Kagome was sent home...not to the place she had come to know, but instead to the place she had forgotten—Amestris. Many years ago, she had saved her father from having to see Truth by sacrificing herself in his place, causing her to end up in Japan without her memories. But with the final battle done, it was time for her to return.

* * *

 **The World She Forgot**

 **Chapter One: Back Home**

Kagome hung onto Inuyasha as he carried the both of them out of the void. With a slash of his sword, he made a rift in the darkness that led to the outside. His arm gripped around her waist tighter as he brought them back to their friends.

Their friends watched them land softly on the ground of the destroyed battlefield. They greeted them with warm smiles and tears of joy. We had finally done it. The battle was finally over and they had won. Kagome gave them a warm, tired smile. She couldn't believe the Jewel was gone. It all seemed too unreal.

' _ **You know you never belonged in the Feudal Era, Kagome. Return… Return to the world where you truly belong.'**_ The words the Shikon Jewel said to her in the void still rang in her head but in a voice similar, yet different from what she had heard before. _**'Your job here is done. And now it's time to pay the second part of our wager.'**_

' _Wager?'_ Kagome looked frightened. _'What wager?'_ she asked the voice.

' _ **The one you paid in order to know the truth,'**_ the ominous voice told her.

Before anyone could react, a giant door appeared out of nowhere and stood behind Kagome. She turned around slowly, frightened at what she was about to see. The markings on the door looked complex with many strange symbols and words decorating it, forming an elaborate tree-like pattern.

" **It's time for you to return home, miko. Or should I say, 'young alchemist.'"** The voice appeared to be coming from the other side of the door.

"What's an alchemist?" Miroku asked, very confused about what was going on.

Kagome got a bad feeling from this door. It seemed so familiar to her, yet she couldn't place where she had seen it before. "I-I've read about it in my textbooks, but they're just a myth," she replied as nervous sweat began building on her skin.

" **A myth you say?"** The voice laughed at her ignorance. **"Oh, young alchemist, wouldn't you say many would call your half-demon friend a myth? Or what about your other demon friends, are they myths as well?"** The voice paused for effect. **"And am I a myth?"**

Kagome took a shaky step back. "I-I don't know. I've never met you before."

The voice let out another laugh. **"Oh, how laughable for you to think that. I'm the one who sent you to this world, and now you're done with your task, it's time for you to go back. This is the price you shall pay for knowing the truth."**

"Bullshit! You're not going to take her away from us!" Inuyasha yelled at the door as he stepped protectively in front of Kagome.

Kagome put a hand on Inuyasha's arm as she gave the door a hard stare. "What price are you talking about?" Kagome tentatively demanded.

" **A person cannot gain anything without sacrificing something first. That is the principle of equivalent exchange in alchemy,"** the voice stated. **"And what you sacrificed is what you value the most."**

"What I value the most?" Kagome took another step back. "I-I don't know what that could possibly be."

Another laugh was heard. **"You'll figure it out with time. Now…"** The doors began to open, revealing a black void of nothing. **"I believe I have delayed your departure long enough…"** A giant, ominous eye appeared in the doorway. The sight made Kagome step back again.

"What is that thing?" Sango asked, preparing to fight it if they had too.

"Whatever it is, it doesn't look good," Miroku replied also getting into a fighting stance.

Kagome began shaking with freight. _'I know this feeling…and it's not good,'_ she thought as she held her shaking body with her arms. "Everyone! Get back! Whatever this thing is, it's dangerous!" Everyone looked at Kagome with worry, but did what she said.

Long, black tendrils shot out of the door and wrapped around Kagome's limbs. "KAGOME!" everyone shouted with concern and freight.

' _ **Come…'**_ the voice beckoned. _**'Come, young alchemist… Go back to your own world.'**_

Kagome struggled against the tendrils. _'My own world?'_

"Kagome!" Inuyasha ran up to her and tried to rip off the black, ribbon-like arms of the monster.

Even though she didn't want to, Kagome knew there was nothing she could do. Wherever she came from, she had to go back. Her job here is done. "Inuyasha stop!" she shouted at her lover.

"But, Kagome! You're going to be dragged into that door!" Inuyasha gripped her body close to his into a tight hug.

Kagome gave him a sad look. "I know…but I think it's what I have to do." She let her bangs cover her eyes as she leaned her head against his chest.

"But!" he tried to protest.

Kagome lifted her head to reveal her tear filled eyes. "There's nothing you can do, Inuyasha!" Her voice cracked as she shouted at him. "My time here is done," she said softly. "If I truly don't belong here, then I must go. I knew I would have to leave after the battle was done, but this was not how I pictured it."

"K-Kagome…" Inuyasha began to shed tears for his love. He leaned down and captured her lips with his.

After a few seconds passed, they pulled apart and embraced one last time. "Never forget me, Inuyasha," she whispered softly into his chest.

He held her tighter. "Never." He then reluctantly let her go.

Kagome looked at the rest of her friends who were also shedding tears for her. "I guess this is goodbye, everyone."

"Kagome…" Shippo cried as he watched the person he began to think of as a mother get taken away from him.

Kagome gave him a sad smile. "Stay strong for me, Shippo," she said before turning to the door with a determined look. "I'm ready…" she stated, no longer bothering to struggle. As if understanding her, the tendrils began to put more force as it began to pull Kagome into its dark abyss.

" **Heed my warning, alchemist. Close your eyes as you journey back unless you want to lose more than you already have,"** the voice warned.

Kagome decided it was best not to question the voice so she did what it said. She felt her body get pulled into the void as the doors closed with a hallowing bang, signaling there was no turning back.

Under her eyelids, she could see that something bright began to light up the abyss, but she resisted the temptation of opening her eyes to see what it was. As she got father to where she was going, she felt her body begin to break down from the unknown force.

' _Alchemy is the science of understanding the structure of matter, breaking it down, then reconstructing it as something else. It is the science that follows the natural laws: to create, something of equal value must be lost. This is the principle of equivalent exchange,'_ Kagome heard a younger version of her voice recite.

After an indeterminable amount of time had passed, Kagome was thrown out of the door and into a completely white room. "Where am I?" she asked as she began to pick herself up from the ground.

" **You are nowhere."** Kagome turned around a saw a ghostly outline of a figure sitting a ways away. **"Yet everywhere."**

"What?" Kagome faced the figure. "Who are you?"

" **We already had this conversation, Kagome."** The figure smiled. **"You already know the answer to that question. Actually, you know the answer to many questions since you've seen the truth."**

Kagome gave the figure a confused look, but decided to do the one thing that would allow her to reach further into her mind. She sat down on her knees and placed her hands together as she meditated, trying to search her mind for what she had lost. The figure sat patiently as it waited for the girl to find the answer.

After a few minutes, she opened her eyes. **"Well? What is your answer?"** it asked her.

Kagome looked at the figure where its eyes would be. "You go by many names: you are the world, the universe, truth, you are all, you are one."

" **That's correct, alchemist."** Truth smiled at her for getting the answer right, but she felt no comfort in it.

Kagome gave the figure a hard look. "I remember everything. I remember my life in Amestris. I had protected my father from being sent here, so instead of him having to suffer, I decided to sacrifice myself in his place."

" **That's correct. Despite the transmutation circle not being your doing, I still had to take away something you valued the most,"** the figure stated.

Kagome looked down at her lap. "My family and my friends…"

" **That's right. If you died, you wouldn't care. But if you lost the people you loved, that's a much heavier price."** The figure stood up. **"And what makes it even better is that you lost your lover as well."**

"Inuyasha…" Tears began to build up in her eyes again.

" **No need for any more tears, alchemist. You can finally go home—your real home,"** Truth pointed out.

"W-wait. What about my father? Is he alright?" Kagome asked, remembering the man she had protected, what seemed so many years ago.

" **That's for you to find out. Now, it's time for you to go. I have kept you here far too long."** Truth lifted up its hand as Kagome began to fade from its domain. **"I shall take away a few years you have lived through, but your memories will stay intact so that you will forever remember those you had to leave behind."**

"Wait!" Kagome reaches out to Truth. "How will I know where to find him?"

" **The component that you seek will be where everything meets…"** Those were the last words Kagome heard before she found herself lying in the middle of a ruined circle in what looked like a collapsed building.

' _Where am I?'_ Kagome looked around and look for anything remotely familiar. The pillars that surrounded her gave her a sense of déjà vu. _'Is this the place where I was last seen in this world?'_ she thought as she looked at the circle she sat on top of. _'This is where I saved him from having to suffer my fate.'_

Kagome picked herself up from the floor and brushed off her clothes, which didn't do much considering how torn and dirty it got during the final battle. _'The component that I seek will be where everything meets…'_ Kagome grabbed her head in frustration. "What the hell does that mean?!" Kagome walked around to look for an exit. "God damn it. I wish my life for once wasn't filled with riddles. Why can't people just give me straight answers?!"

Kagome saw that there wasn't an obvious open door since the building had collapsed, but there was a pile of rubble she could somewhat easily climb up to get out of the hole she was in. "It seems my life can never be easy," she grumbled as she climbed up the rock pile.

Once she got to the top, she saw that the sun was just rising over the horizon. "I wonder how much has changed since I've been gone." At the bottom was what looked like an abandoned small town with collapsed buildings littering the area. "Well, it looks like this has been left alone for at least a couple of years now."

She jumped down to a lower rock, before jumping one last time to the ground. "It doesn't seem like this place has seen any life in a while."

Kagome continued to explore the ruins of the forgotten town looking for anything she could possibly use. In one building she found some clothes still left in the drawers. Most of the clothes had been eaten away by bugs, but some things could still be used. In a different house, she was able to find a worn, brown, hooded cloak that could come in handy as she journeyed to find her father. Another house contained a medium-sized strap bag that she used to fill with any valuables she could find, which she could possibly sell in the next town. Luckily she was able to find random change dropped on the ground or hidden away in different parts of houses, which should be enough to buy at least a few days worth of food.

After shoving everything she could find in her bag, she adjusted the strap over her shoulder before looking out at the long dirt road she planned to take to get to the next town. "Well, I guess this is it…" She took a deep breath before taking the first step on her new journey.

* * *

 **Red:** How was it? Good? Bad? Please let me know what you think in the **reviews**. :)

(Depending how well this story does and if people even like it will let me know if I should continue or not.)


	2. Companion

**Red:** I hope you guys are enjoying this story so far. :)

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or Fullmetal Alchemist, if that wasn't obvious enough. They belong to their rightful owners. (I mean, why would the creators be on this website writing fanfics?)**

 **Notice!** This is going to follow the story of Brotherhood, but will probably make references back to some things that happened in the first series.

 **Summary:** After the final battle with Naraku, Kagome was sent home...not to the place she had come to know, but instead to the place she had forgotten—Amestris. Many years ago, she had saved her father from having to see Truth by sacrificing herself in his place, causing her to end up in Japan without her memories. But with the final battle done, it was time for her to return.

* * *

 **Chapter Two: Companion**

Roy mustang sat at his desk looking through articles about events happening in the country. _'The city of Liore has a priest who is able to create miracles out of thin air. It says here he can even bring someone back to life.'_ Roy chuckles as he read the unbelievable article _. 'Looks like Fullmetal will want to know about this.'_

Roy sets the article down and then picks up a manila folder and opens it to see the picture of a man in the top right corner on top of a file about Issac McDougal, "The Freezer" Alchemist. _'But first, we have to catch him before investigating the priest in Liore.'_

* * *

After walking for some time, Kagome was beginning to become thirsty as she began to tire from her long journey. She dragged her bag behind her as she exhaustedly trudged along the dirt road with nothing in sight. She tried to continue walking when her legs just gave out underneath her and she fell on her face. "This sucks…" she mumbled into the dirt road. "If only I had Inuyasha to carry me like before…"

As time passed, Kagome continued to stay on the floor. Birds began landing on her and pecking at her body to check if she was still alive. A fox came out of the brush and began sniffing her hair. She turned her head slightly to see who was touching her head. "Just let me waste away, foxy…" she told the creature before turning her head back to the floor.

The fox turned his head slightly to the side at the human's weird reaction. Most humans would freak out when he got close to them. She seemed different from the rest. "Ugh…water…" human groaned.

Kagome continue to lie there as she heard the fox leave her side. She thought that was the last time she would see him, but several minutes later, she heard something walk up her side and let out a yip. "Huh?" She lifts her head and sees the same fox from before. "Did you want something, little guy?" she asked it.

"Yip!" he let out before nudging his head to the brush and walk back into the grass. Kagome continue to lie there as she watched the fox walk into the tall grass.

When the fox noticed that the human wasn't walking with him, he turned back around stuck his head out of the grass and yipped at the human again. "Do you want me to follow you?" Kagome asked it.

"Yip!" Then the fox walked off again. Taking that as a yes, Kagome picked herself off the ground, causing the birds to fly off her, and follow the fox into the grass.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked. The fox yipped again and continued to walk farther from the rode. After walking for what seemed about ten minutes, she was greeted with an area covered in trees with a small pond in the middle. A small stream led to the pond, forming a small waterfall and supplying the pond with clear, clean water.

Kagome was so happy to finally see some water that she ran to the waterfall and scooped up the water in her hands and drank until her heart's content. The fox walked to the side of the pond and began lapping up the water. When Kagome was satisfied, she turned toward the fox and said, "Thank you." As if knowing how thankful she is, the fox rubbed against her side.

She giggled at the creature. "You remind me of someone I used to know," she told him with a sad smile as she put a hand on his head and began to pet it. "His name was Shippo and he was a fox like you. His parents were killed by some bad men, so he was alone and turned to mischief in order to live." The foxed look at her attentively as if understanding what she was saying. "But once I told him stealing wasn't good and that he could come along with me on my adventure, he became like a son to me. I cared for him, so that one day he would be strong… He would be my strong little Shippo…" Kagome stopped her petting and looked at the water sadly as she thought back to her friends.

The fox looked at the human with sad eyes sensing the sorrow that she felt. He walked closer to her and set his head on her leg. The human turned her head to him and gave him a smile, which he found to like a lot more than her being sad.

Kagome picked up the fox to put in her lap when she noticed that he was much lighter than he should've been considering his size (even if he was smaller than an average male fox). "Have you been eating?" She asked him. "You're far too light for your size." The fox looked down at her words as if knowing he hasn't been getting enough food. "You helped me even though you've been starving out here?" She gave him a sad look before standing up and placing the fox back to the ground.

"Well, then let me help you," she said with a smile as she began walking to a tree. The foxed watched her with a look of wonder and confusion. What was this human planning to do?

Kagome stood in front of the tree and accessed it. "I'm a bit rusty since it's been so long, but hopefully this works," she said as she put her hands together with a clap and placing her hands on the tree. A bright pink light consumed the area and after a few seconds, a wooden bow and some arrows were formed with some of the trunk of the tree. Kagome picked up the bow and felt the wood in her hands. "I guess this isn't bad for my first transmutation back." She grabbed the bow and arrows and placed them both on the ground before transmuting a quiver for her arrows with some more of the trunk.

After she was done, she turned back to the fox, which had huge, shocked eyes. This was his first time seeing such wonder being preformed in front of him.

Kagome bent down in front of the fox. "So, what do you feel like eating?" The fox just continued to look at her. "Do you like bird?" Kagome pointed to some birds flying above them. The fox yipped at her words. Kagome smiled at the fox and stood back up, "Bird it is then!"

She walked out of the grove of trees and into more of an open area before taking her bow and arrow and pointing it to one of the flying birds in the sky. After so many years of traveling and searching for shards with Inuyasha, she became as good as Kikyo with using a bow. Kagome took a deep breath before letting the arrow fly through the air. The bird was hit dead on, causing it to fall to the ground.

The fox continue to watch the amazing things this human could do. Who was this human he had saved? He watched as the human ran up to the bird she had shot and bring it back to him.

Kagome knelt down and took the arrow out of the bird. "Here you go," she said and handed the bird to the fox. "Now you can finally eat." The fox gave her a grateful yip and began to dig into his meal. "Do you want another?" The fox happily yipped at her. She smiled at the animal. "One bird coming right up!"

She continued to stay with the fox until she thought it was finally well fed. Kagome went to the pond to clean off her hands and fill the container she got from one of the collapsed house with some extra water.

After everything was ready, she grabbed her bow and arrows and adjusted her bag on her shoulder before turning to head back to the road. "Well, I better continue my journey. Who knows how far I am from the next town."

The fox looked up from lapping up more water and cleaning off the blood from his face after his meal. He looked at the human with sad eyes. "Yip…" Kagome turned to the fox and noticed it walking to her. "Yip…" He rubbed his head on her leg.

Kagome smiled at him. "I have to go now, little guy…" she knelt down to pet him one last time. "I'm sure you have your own family to go back to." The fox gave her a sad look and continued to rub against her after letting out another soft yip. "Don't tell me you're alone out here," she said to the fox, who answered her with another yip.

' _He's just like Shippo…'_ Kagome thought as she continued to pet him. "Well, I guess you can come with me." The fox looked at her with a happy smile. "I mean, I'm alone as well, so we can have each other!" she exclaimed causing the fox to jump on her and lick her face with excitement.

"Since you remind me of my son, I'm going to name you Shippo. Do you like that?" The fox happily yips at the name. "Well, Shippo, my name is Kagome, and starting today we are partners." The fox licked her face again causing her to laugh from the ticklish feeling.

Kagome then stood up with her new companion by her side as they both look at the dirt rode where they had met and where they planned to leave. She looked down at Shippo, "Well, at least this way, I can make sure you eat properly." Shippo looked at her and wagged his tail. Kagome smiled down at her new friend. "It seems my adventure just got a lot more interesting."

Kagome began walking towards the road. "Come, Shippo. Let's begin our adventure together." Shippo yipped excitedly and followed his new human companion.

* * *

 **Red:** I know there isn't much going on in this chapter, but I wanted her to have a companion. :P Since I took away several of her old friends, why not give her a new one? (Plus, I like foxes. ^^")

Thank you for reading! **Please review!**

And don't worry, Edward and Alphonse are going to show up in the next chapter.


	3. Liore

**Red:** Thank you for everyone's lovely reviews! :D I enjoyed reading each and every one of them. ^^

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or Fullmetal Alchemist, if that wasn't obvious enough. They belong to their rightful owners. (I mean, why would the creators be on this website writing fanfics?)**

 **Notice!** This is going to follow the story of Brotherhood, but will probably make references back to some things that happened in the first series.

 **Summary:** After the final battle with Naraku, Kagome was sent home...not to the place she had come to know, but instead to the place she had forgotten—Amestris. Many years ago, she had saved her father from having to see Truth by sacrificing herself in his place, causing her to end up in Japan without her memories. But with the final battle done, it was time for her to return.

* * *

 **Chapter Three: Liore**

Roy threw down Issac McDougal's file. "Well, Fullmetal, looks like the Fuhrer was the one who ended up catching McDougal after all," the Flame Alchemist said to the blond teen sitting on his office couch.

"I was close to catching him if the Fuhrer wasn't there," Edward grumbled out while looking away from the Colonel's condescending eyes.

Roy chuckled at his subordinate's attitude. "Well, besides the failure of not being the ones to catch the Freezer, I do have some news for you that you may find quite interesting," Roy told the teen as he leaned over his desk to reach for the article he had read earlier that day.

Ed turned over to his superior with intrigued eyes. "What news might that be, Colonel?" Ed asked.

Instead of responding, Roy just decided to throw the article at Ed, who was able to expertly catch it from the air. Roy only had to wait a few seconds before the young alchemist was able to read the whole article and have a huge smile spread across his face. "This is amazing!" Ed jumps up from the couch in excitement.

Al watched into the room with Maes Hughes behind him. "What's amazing, brother?"

Ed turned to his younger brother with the article in his hands. "Al, I think we have a lead to what we need!" he said while showing his brother the picture of the priest.

Al became excited as well once he heard the news. "That's great, brother! When do we leave?"

Ed continued to stare at the article with a huge grin on his face. "As soon as possible!"

Hughes suddenly put his arm around Ed's shoulders. "Well, it's not going to be for a couple of days since the train stations are being repaired from the damage done by the Freezer," the Lieutenant Colonel told the boys in his usual happy tone.

"What?" Ed dropped the article as he fell to the ground with comedic tears falling from his eyes. "I wanted to leave now…"

Al sweat-dropped at his older brother's actions. "Now, now, brother. We've waited this long to try to find the Philosopher Stone, a few more days of waiting wouldn't hurt."

Ed sat up on the ground and looked up at his younger brother. "But, Al!"

Hughes pat Ed on the head. "Come on now. You boys can stay with me!" He suddenly reaches behind him and takes out his booklet with his family pictures and shoved them in Ed's face. "My beautiful wife, Gracia, and my adorable daughter, Elicia, would love to have you stay with us!"

Roy sighed as he watched his friend continue to gush at his family photos _again_. " _Hughes_! Was there something you needed?"

Hughes stood up and gave his best friend one of his usual grins. "Not really. I just wanted to come around and finally meet the youngest state alchemist, and would you have guessed that I would run into him in the hall?" he said excitedly as he pat Al on the back.

Al looked flustered by Hughes' notion. "Um… I'm actually not a state alchemist," Al corrected him.

Hughes stepped back with shock. "What! You're not the Fullmetal Alchemist? But you sound so young," he said.

Al rubbed the back of his head. "I'm actually his younger brother, Alphonse. You want Edward, the real state alchemist."

"Edward?" Hughes looks at the small boy on the ground. "You mean this—"

' _Call me little, I dare you!'_ Ed thought while glaring at the man in front of him.

"Hughes!" Roy interrupted before things got too loud in his office. He knew how Ed could be when someone called him small. Usually it was humorous to him, but right now he wasn't in the mood to have a teenager screaming in his office. "Can you please leave my office? I need to get back to my work _without_ you brothering me again."

"Roger that!" Hughes gives Roy a salute before grabbing Edward's hand and running out of the door.

"H-Hey!" Ed shouted as this strange man tugged him along. "Al, help me!"

Al followed the two of them. "I-I'm coming, brother!"

Once the three of them left, Roy released a tired sigh. _'Alone at last…'_ he thought as he leaned his head against the back of his chair and closed his eyes to rest.

* * *

 **~Kagome~**

A couple of hours passed as Kagome continued on her journey with her partner at her side and the sun beginning to sink into the horizon. The sky turned multiple shades of colors before finally turning black with speckles of stars littering the sky. With the moon and the stars to lead her way, Kagome continued to walk on the long road leading to who-knows-where.

Despite how much they had walked, there was still nothing as far as the eye could see. Hours of walking and not much had changed in their setting.

Kagome looked at the long road with exhaustion. "It doesn't look like we're going to get to the town any time soon, Shippo."

"Yip…" Shippo agreed, tiredly.

Kagome sat on a rock near the road and took out the container filled with water from her bag. After realizing she didn't have the right container to use as a bowl, she grabbed a rock nearby and transmuted it into a water bowl for Shippo to use. She then took the container of water and poured a good amount of it into the bowl before setting it on the ground for Shippo to drink. Kagome then tilted the container to drink from it. As she was drinking, she heard distant hoof beats down the road from where they had came from.

She set the container down as she saw a horse-drawn cart making its way towards them from the distance. Kagome quickly picked up her things and set them off the road as she stood up and waved her arms in order to get the person's attention. Maybe the person was heading to the next town. It would help her greatly if he was.

"Hey!" she called out as she continued to wave her arms.

The driver slowed down when he got near her. "Hello, Miss. What are you doing all the way out here?" the man asked looking at the endless countryside.

"I was on a journey looking for someone, but I got lost," Kagome told the man. It wasn't a complete lie, but at the same time, it was not the whole truth. It would be better if fewer people who knew what had happened to her or where she is from. "Do you know how close I am to the next town?"

"The next town is Liore and it's ten more miles that way." The man pointed down the road in the direction she was already heading. "If you're heading over there, do you need a ride, Miss?"

Kagome gave the man a huge smile. "Yes, please! I've been walking for so long and am exhausted. I feel like my legs are turning into butter."

The man chuckled at her statement, "Well, then hop onto the back." He gestures to the back of his cart with a thumb. "I hope you don't mind sitting with my produce and chickens."

Kagome shook her head and gave the man another smile. "No, it's okay." She then looked down at Shippo who had walked up next to her. "Um… I was wondering if you would allow my fox to ride with me in the back?" Kagome asked while picking up Shippo into her arms.

The man looked down at the medium sized red fox. "As long as it doesn't eat my chickens, that's fine with me," the man told her with a kind smile on his face.

"Thank you!" Kagome quickly picked up her things and packed them away before jumping on to the open back of the cart. Shippo easily hopped on to the back and lied beside her.

"So are you wanting to go to Liore to meet Father as well?" the man asked her.

Kagome turned her head to the coachman. "Father?"

"I heard from my mother that an amazing priest by the name of Father Cornello has blessed the town with his amazing powers given to him by God to help our people," the man said with excitement in his voice. "It is said that the man can make amazing things from changing just one pebble, and recently he has claimed to be able to bring the dead back to life!"

Kagome looked off into the distance. "Hm… God huh…" She looked down at her hands remembering the miracles _she_ could preform herself. "Is that so…" Kagome turned to the man with a smile on her face. "That sounds amazing! I can't wait to meet this Cornello," she said with fake excitement. Although, she does want to meet this peculiar human who claims to have God's power.

The man chuckled, not noticing that she was faking everything. "Well, you're going to have to wait quite a long time to be able to see him. I've heard there is a huge line of people who want to see the great Father."

Kagome kicked her dangling legs back and forth as she leaned back. "He sounds like a busy man. Preforming all of these miracles must be hard work," she said while staring at the stars.

"I wouldn't know since I can't even dream about having that sort of power blessed by God," the man said. "But that's OK with me, I'm satisfied with being a simple deliverer for my mother."

"That's very noble of you," Kagome replied, impressed by this man. "Most humans desire more than they already have even though what they have is enough to satisfy many."

The man turned his head to look at the girl staring at the stars. "You sound very wise for such a young girl. Your words make it seem as like you have seen things many have not," the man said with a curious tone to his voice.

Kagome chuckled at his words. "It would seem that way doesn't it…" she said softly. Kagome then turned to the man with a smile on her face, "But I'm just rambling. So where are you going, sir?"

The man turned back to the road in front of him. "I'm doing a delivery job for my mother who runs a diner in Liore. She said she needed a large supply of produce because of the increase in travelers visiting Liore to see the Father."

"Hm… I see." Kagome decided to crawl towards the front of the cart. "That reminds me. How do I repay you for your help, sir?"

"There is no need to repay me," the man replied. "It was no trouble on my part to help a traveler."

"That is very kind of you, but I would still like to repay you any way I can. Although, I don't have much money on me since I haven't been in this country for very long," she told the man.

The man looked her way with a kind smile. "That's alright, Miss. I don't need your money either. The company you have provided on his lonely trip is enough to satisfy this old man," the man said while wiping away fake tears.

"Old? You, sir, I have to guess are not even older than thirty years," she said while chuckling at his statement.

The man laughed with her. "You're right. I'm only twenty-five years old." The man turned his head when he saw something familiar in the distance. "Looks like we're almost there. Liore is just up ahead."

Kagome stopped laughing and looked in the direction they were headed. What she saw was a cluster of buildings with a bell tower standing higher than the rest. "Does that bell tower lead to the church?" she asked.

"Yes, the tower stands at the center of the city. It is where Father Cornello likes to demonstrate his creations to everyone in town," the man replied.

A few minutes later, the man pulled the cart up to a small diner, which was still open. He easily jumps down from his seat to go greet the women waiting for him outside. Kagome follows him with Shippo walking behind her. "Hello, mother," the man greeted.

The older woman smiled and gave the man a hug. "Welcome home, Dan," his mother replied. The woman had her eyes closed when she had tugged the man known as Dan into a hug. When she did open her eyes, she saw a beautiful girl standing with a cute fox at her side behind her son. "Oh." The lovely girl waved at her meekly, while the fox hid behind her legs. "Who's this, dear?" the women asked, pulling away from her son to walk up to the shy girl. "You didn't get a wife while you were away, did you?" she joked.

The man quickly became flustered by his mom's accusation. "M-mom!"

Kagome became equally flustered. "I'm not his wife, ma'am. I'm actually a traveler who was lucky enough to get a ride here by your son."

The woman studied her face. "Hm, pity. You are quite beautiful, even though you are a bit young. If you want, in a few years you can really marry my son," she said happily.

"MOM!" the man shouted, completely embarrassed at this point. "Can we _please_ unload the stuff and get inside, away from listening ears," the man suggested.

The woman sighed and turned back to her shop. "Okay, okay, bring in the produce. I'll go make space for it." The woman walked back into her diner to make some room for her new supplies.

Once she was gone, Dan composed himself and tried to make himself forget the previous conversation. He coughed into his hand to change the subject.

Kagome turned to the embarrassed man, "Do you need help unloading? I still owe you something for the ride."

"Sure, thank you." Dan then walked to the back of the cart to pick up a box of vegetables and make his way to the back of the diner. Kagome followed him with another box, while Shippo copied his new master by carrying a small bag of nuts in his mouth and followed her in.

There were a few people still in the diner finishing up or just enjoying themselves with some friends. The costumers turned their heads to the door when they saw a new face enter while following the owner's son to the back. Everyone who lived in the town knew about the owner's son, Dan, already but they had never seen the new girl before.

A few girls started to shout out loud, which startled the two workers, who almost dropped their boxes. The owner suddenly ran out from the back to see what was wrong. "What's going on?" she asked, while holding a broom, ready to strike down whoever was disturbing her diner.

"He's soooo cute~!" the girls gushed at the little fox carrying the bag strap in his mouth.

Poor Shippo is not used to all of this attention and got frightened by the approaching humans. "Yip!" he called out in distress.

Kagome saw what was happening and quickly stepped in-between the girls and her partner. "I'm sorry, ladies. Shippo is not used to humans yet and you guys are scaring him," she told them kindly as Shippo took the chance to jump onto her shoulder.

"Oh, we're sorry," the girls apologized. "It's not every day we get to see such a tame fox."

Kagome gave them a smile. "It's alright. Maybe once Shippo gets used to being around more people, he will let you pet him," she said. _'Although I don't know how long we're going to be in this town before we have to continue our journey,'_ she thought.

"Really?" the girls excitedly asked. "That would be great!" After that, the girls waved goodbye to the owner and her son before leaving for the night.

* * *

About an hour later, all of the crates were set inside. Dan climb back onto his seat in the cart. "I will see you in about half day. I have to deliver these chickens to a local farm," he told Kagome.

"OK, Dan. I hope to see again soon." Kagome waved the man goodbye.

Dan was about to whip the rein of the horse when he realized something very important. Dan turned to the young girl waving at him, "Before I leave, I never got your name."

Kagome stopped waving when she realized the same thing he had. "Oh, I never told you. I'm sorry. My name is Kagome."

"Well, Kagome," Dan gave her a two finger salute. "I will see you later." With a swift flick of the rein, Dan was off again.

Kagome waved to the departed cart. "Bye, Dan!" Kagome then remembered another important thing that she should've asked him. "Where am I going to stay?" she asked herself. Kagome began looking up and down the street to see if there was a sign for an inn. She didn't see anything and she didn't know which direction to start looking for it.

"If you need a place to stay, I'm fine with you staying with us, dear," a voice said from behind her.

Kagome turned around and saw Dan's mother in the doorway. "Oh, I don't want to intrude, ma'am. Dan has already done enough for me."

"And you have done plenty for me and him. You helped us unload the supplies," the women replied.

Kagome chuckled. "I highly doubt those things are equal. I still feel like I owe you two something, especially if I end up staying with you," Kagome said.

Dan's mother began tapping her chin with one of her fingers as she thought of a solution to this situation. "Well, then how about this," she began, "I'm short on waiters and the diner has been packed lately, so if I provide you a place to stay, you will help me with the diner," she proposed.

"That actually sounds like a fair trade. You have yourself a deal, ma'am." Kagome held out her hand for a shake. The woman smiled and took her hand in both of hers.

"That settles that, then." The woman walked back into her diner with Kagome following her. "Let me go set up the guest room, dear. Make yourself acquainted with the diner while I prepare your room."

Kagome put a hand gently on her shoulder. "But wait, why do you trust me so much? I could be a thief and steal everything while you are gone," she pointed out.

The woman turned to her again and placed an aged hand onto Kagome's head. "One: If you were truly a thief, I don't think you would tell me that you were," she replied with a smile. "Two: Dan seems to trust you, which is good. And three: you don't seem bad, and I trust my instincts about others," she said with a wink. "Now, let me go set everything up."

Kagome watched the woman walk up the stairs with a smile on her face. She was lucky to have encountered such nice people so early in her journey back.

She turned in the direction of the kitchen. "I better get acquainted with this place since I'm staying here now."

* * *

 **Red:** I was going to stop here since it's already over 3000 words, but since I promised you guys the brothers would meet Kagome in this chapter, I'm going to continue. :P

* * *

 **~A Few Days Later~**

Ed groaned as he settled himself onto the seat of the train. "Ugh, I can't believe it took them three days to finish the repairs. If I was in charge of the repairs it would've taken me less than a day to finish," Ed gloated. Al just sweat-dropped at his brother's statement. Ed did always think highly of himself, but he wouldn't be Ed if he wasn't always confident.

Hughes stood outside their window while waving goodbye to the two brothers. "If you guys are ever in town, give me a call. My wife and daughter would love to have you boys around again," Hughes said in a cheerful tone.

"Yeah, yeah." Ed waved lazily towards the man. "Thanks, major. We'll let you know."

"It's Lieutenant Colonel!" Hughes shouted at Ed.

Al waved goodbye to the man as the train began to pull out of the station. "Thank you, Mr. Hughes! Say bye to Ms. Gracia and Elicia for us!"

"Will do, Al!" Hughes replied with a smile. _'They're so young, and yet have so much on their pallet,'_ he thought as he turned around to make his way to his office. _'Ed's childhood pretty much ended when he decided to become a dog of the military. It's sort of sad to think about the hardships those boys will have to go through from now on.'_

Hughes thought back to a conversation he had with Roy some time ago.

' _Hey, tell me something, Roy. Why did you decide to make Ed a state alchemist anyway? He's just a kid,' he asked. 'I mean, military life isn't easy, you know. That boy is going to have to go through hell some day. We certainly have seen our fair share.'_

' _What makes you think they haven't, Maes? You should know most do not join the military unless they have a reason to,' Roy replied while still walking down the steps even though Maes had stopped at the top._

 _Roy paused in his step to turn back to his friend. 'And let me tell you, his reason for joining, some may say, exceeds our reason.' With that, Roy bid his friend goodbye for the day._

'I wonder what he meant by that,' Maes thought. 'What had those boys seen that made Roy talk like that?' There was a tone to Roy's voice back then that made him think that whatever reason Ed had for joining the military, it was something that people do not wish to ever see.

* * *

Since the train ride was going to take over a day to arrive at Liore, Ed decided to rest his eyes, while he let his brother watch his back. _'Will we really find what we are looking for in Liore? Can the solution to getting Al's body back be at the end of this train ride?'_ Ed asked himself. _'I hope so…'_ Ed let sleep take over as he leaned against the window.

In the morning, Al opened his eyes from collecting his thoughts all night and saw a town in the distance. "Brother wake up!" A suit of armor tried to jostle his older sibling awake. "We're almost there."

Ed slowly opened his eyes and blinked awake the sleep from them. He looked out the window to see the outline of the town in the distance. The bell tower of a church overlooked the whole town. _'That must be where this Father Cornello is,'_ he thought with a smirk. _'If he does have a Philosopher Stone on him, he better not get too comfortable with it because we're going to be taking it off his hands pretty soon.'_

A few more minutes and the train finally pulled up into the station. Ed stepped off the train and stretched his muscles. "Man, it's exhausting sitting for so long. I'm so glad I don't have a desk job like Colonel-bastard," Ed said.

Al sweat-dropped again at his brother's statement. "Brother, he's your commanding officer and he's been so nice to us so far, so why do you keep calling him that?" Al asked.

"Heh. The day he gets my respect is the day I admit I'm sh—" Ed stops and then coughs to change the subject. "Anyway, we should go find a place to eat. I'm starving." Ed began to walk out of the station. "Plus, a diner may be the perfect place to listen in to see if anyone knows anything about this Father Cornello guy."

"Okay, coming, brother." Al followed his older brother through town. Al points to an open diner. "I think you can get something to eat over there, brother."

Ed walked up to the man at the counter. "Hey, pops, do you serve food at this joint," Ed asked in a somewhat rude manner.

"Ed, be nicer when you ask for something," Al whispered to his brother.

The man simply turned to the newcomers with a smile. "I sure do. Sit at the counter and I will make something for you two."

"Thanks. I'll take a plate of whatever you have," Ed replied back.

Al rubbed the back of his helmet. "I'm alright. I don't need anything."

The man turned to him while cleaning a glass cup. "You sure, kid? You're not even a little bit thirsty from your trip?"

"N-no, really. I'm fine," Al replied.

The man shrugged and turned back to the stove. "Suit yourself, kid."

While the man was making Ed's food, they both tried to listen in on any conversations about the "miracles" the Father has done recently. Before they had time to really listen, the Father's voice rang out from every radio in town, filling the streets with his preaching.

"Here you go." The man places the plate of food and a cup of orange juice in front of Ed, who instantly started digging in.

Ed lifts the cup to take a sip when the man asked, "So what are you guys? Some street performers or something?" Ed instantly did a spit-take with the juice.

"Seriously, do we look like street performers to you?" Ed asked, annoyed.

"Why, yes. That's why I asked," the man replied.

Not wanting to talk to this man anymore, Ed quickly eats his food and jumps down from his seat. "Let's go, Al."

"Thank you for the food, mister," Al nicely thanked the man before standing up to follow his brother. Sadly, he did not notice that there was a roof about where he was sitting and ended up knocking down the radio that was sitting on top.

"Hey! I didn't mean anything by what I said. No need to smash my stuff," the man shouted, as he looked at his smashed up radio on the ground.

"Sorry. It was an accident. Don't worry, we'll fix it," Ed said while Al bent down to inspect the damage.

"How's that?" the man asked. "The thing is smashed into pieces."

"Watch and learn gramps," Ed replied back with a smirk as his brother was already drawing a transmutation circle around the damage.

After the circle was complete, Al stands up and crosses one of his hands over the other above the circle. "Okay, here goes," he says before using his alchemy to repair the damaged radio.

Everyone that was crowded around them watched with amazement as the radio began to mend itself on the ground. Once the light disappeared, everyone could see that the radio was as good as new.

Ed smugly pointed at Al's work. "There, see. How's that?"

The man looked at his radio with a shocked face. "Amazing. This is a miracle," he exclaimed. "You've been touched by the Sun God just like Father Cornello."

Ed's smile disappears. "Touch by who now?" he asked with a weirded-out look on his face.

"It's not a miracle, it's alchemy," Al corrected.

"Oh, so you two are alchemists. I've heard of them," a man in the crowd said.

Ed crosses his arms as he happily said, "Then maybe you've heard of us." Al stands in a triumphant pose. "We're the Elric brothers."

The man behind the counter has a confused look on his face. "The Elric brothers?"

"Wait, I do know that name," one man said.

Another man steps in. "Then one of you must be Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, right?"

Instead of replying, Ed chuckles to himself, pleased that his name has traveled so far. As Ed was gloating to himself and just waiting for all of the cheers and compliments, he didn't notice everyone was gathering around Al.

"So you're the young prodigy that they've been telling all the stories about?" a man asked Al, while the others were praising him for his amazing work.

"You're called Fullmetal because you always wear a suit of armor right?" another man asked.

Al quickly became flustered by all of the attention from everyone. "Um… It's not me. I'm not the Fullmetal Alchemist," Al corrected them.

Everyone stops and turns towards the other Elric kid. "Wait… So the shorty is actually the Fullmetal Alchemist?" someone in the crowd said.

A vein popped on Ed's head. "WHO ARE YOU CALLING SHORT! COME SAY THAT TO MY FACE, I DARE YOU!" he screamed out. The townspeople quickly backed away from the crazy alchemist.

Since the radio was fixed, Cornello's voice could be heard once again from the machine, stopping Ed's tantrum. "So, what's with this guy on the radio," Ed calmly asked the scared men.

"T-that's our leader, Father Cornello," the man at the diner replied, still terrified by the short yet scary alchemist.

"We were lost before he came to town and taught us the ways of the Sun God, Leto," one of the townsmen replied with a huge smile on his face.

"He grants eternal life to the souls who are faithful," another man naively said.

"He can even resurrect the dead. His miracles are proof that what he says is true."

Ed could not believe the kind of crap these people were spewing. "So he claims he can bring the dead back to life? Now that's something I got to see."

"Brother, it could be the Philosopher Stone," Al leaned down and whispered.

"Yeah." Ed nodded.

"If you guys want to see our Father and all of his miracles, he's doing a demonstration today at the square where the church is," a man told the two boys while pointing at the bell tower at the center of the city.

Ed looked over at the church and saw a huge crowd of people gathering. "Let's go, Al."

Al nodded his head in understanding. "Right, brother," he said before following his brother to the see how it was possible for this man to preform miracles that don't follow the law of alchemy.

* * *

Cornello happily stood in front of all of his admirers as he showed the crowd the powers of Leto, the mighty Sun God. He opened his arms to show his loyal followers that he is willing to embrace and care for anyone who is willing to follow the ways of God.

As the crowd cheered, flowers continued to rain down on Cornello. The Father held out a hand to capture one of the flowers in his grasp. Once he had it, he used his other hand to encase it before using the power that was given to him by his God to change the petty flower into a beautiful piece of glass art that amazed everyone in the crowd. _'Yes. Now you all can witness the power of Leto that was graciously bestowed upon me as you all follow my orders in hopes that I will fix all your problems,'_ he thought. _'Such fools they all are.'_ A smile graced his face at his thought.

The crowd continued to cheer for the Father, thinking the Father's smile was to show them the kind side that he always showed his followers.

"What do you think, Al?" Ed asked his brother as they watched the Father preform. Ed stood on his briefcase to get a better view of Cornello.

Al crossed his arms as he observed the display. "That's alchemy without a doubt."

Ed was going to agree when he heard a soft voice muttering near the two of them. "How is that possible? He's not following the laws of equivalent exchange at all," Kagome muttered to herself. "He shouldn't be able to transmute the flower into an inorganic object, and one that is not of equal mass to the original object used."

Ed turned to look at a dark-haired girl with a basket with a cloth on top covering something. The girl had familiar eyes that he recognized. They were calculating eyes, which knew how to assess the situation and break down the different factors and analyze them. They were the eyes he has seen stare back at him when he looked in his reflection. They were the eyes of an alchemist.

' _Who is this girl?'_ he asked himself. He then turned back to the Father. _'Whoever she is, she's correct that he's not following the laws at all.'_

"Brother, look at his hand," Al pointed out.

Ed looked closer and saw a small red ball on the ring of the Father. "Bingo," he muttered with a smirk. _'That's how the father is able to do all of this and break the laws. He's using the powers of a Philosopher Stone.'_

Once the demonstration was done, the crowd quickly scattered and went back to their daily jobs. After the distraction was over with, Kagome suddenly remembered why she was there in the first place. _'Oh, yeah! I still have to give Rose her lunch,'_ Kagome thought, making her way to the church.

Ed watched the mysterious girl walk towards the church where the Father had already went back inside to do who knows the hell what he does. "Come on, Al," Ed called to his brother once again while jumping down from his briefcase and started following the girl. "I would like to get acquainted with this 'Leto' guy."

* * *

"Merciful God, please hear my prayer, I beg of you. Please bring him back," a girl named Rose said softly.

Kagome pushed open the doors of the church to see a familiar sight. Rose was on her knees in front of the statue of the God, praying for her dead love yet again.

Kagome quietly walked up to the praying girl before lightly putting her hand on her shoulder to signal she was there.

Rose was startled by the sudden interruption and quickly turned her head to see who it was. "Oh, Kagome, it's you," she said with a smile.

Kagome returned the smile with one of her own and held up the basket. "I brought lunch for you, Rose. Knowing you, you've been so busy praying and helping others that you forgot to eat again."

Rose took the basket gratefully. "Thank you." She set the basket next to her as Kagome made herself comfortable sitting next to her on the ground. Rose looked up at the God with eyes full of sorrow. "I just feel horrible that I get to eat when I could be praying for my love. Every day I hope that Father will fulfill his promise to me and I get to see him again," she said softly. "May Leto hear my cry and grant me my wish."

Kagome looked at her friend with sad eyes. She knew there was no way of bringing him back. God is mighty, but he's not going to disrupt the natural order to bring one dead human back to life. Kagome did not have the heart to tell her the truth. Some times what people need is a bit of hope, even if it will get them nowhere. Despite it being meaningless, at least that hope will let her continue to live, forever thinking there is a way for her to see him again.

"So this is the almighty Leto," a male voice behind them said.

Both Kagome and Rose turned their heads to the source of the voice. They saw two unfamiliar people walking towards them. One was a short blond boy, who seemed to have a cocky aura around him, and the other was a tall suit of armor walking beside him.

Both brothers seemed to spark something within Kagome. She narrowed her eyes at the two. _'Who are they and why are they here?'_ she asked herself. _'The suit of armor has the feel of a child despite it being over seven feet tall. The soul inside also feels distant…like he's not actually there.'_ Kagome stared closer at the suit of armor. _'How can the armor move when it feels like there is no one inside? Has the boy's soul been tampered with? Is there someone in this world that is capable of that?'_ So many questions ran through Kagome's head. Kagome never did like when she didn't understand the kind of situation she was in.

She turned to them while pushing Rose behind her. "Who are you two?" she sternly asked the two boys. If these guys were bad guys, she didn't want Rose to be hurt by them. These boys didn't feel right to her. They gave her a feeling that seemed familiar, but also something that was foreboding.

* * *

 **Red:** And that's all for now. Man, this is basically two chapters in one. ^^" It took so long to write this because it's longer than any chapter I have written in years and because I didn't know how to have the three meet exactly. At first I was going to have them meet at the diner Kagome was working at, but I decided to go with this instead.

Please leave a review telling me what you think. :)


	4. Meeting Father Cornello

**Red:** Sorry for the late update, guys. (^-^;) I know it's been months since the last update, but I hope you guys are still interested in this story. If not, well I guess it's my price to pay for being a horrible author and not updating enough.

With that said, I hope you like this chapter! (This chapter has actually been half done for a while now. He-he… I was just too lazy to write the rest of it… ^^;)

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or Fullmetal Alchemist, if that wasn't obvious enough. They belong to their rightful owners. (I mean, why would the creators be on this website writing fanfics?)**

 **Notice!** This is going to follow the story of Brotherhood, but will probably make references back to some things that happened in the first series.

 **Summary:** After the final battle with Naraku, Kagome was sent home...not to the place she had come to know, but instead to the place she had forgotten—Amestris. Many years ago, she had saved her father from having to see Truth by sacrificing herself in his place, causing her to end up in Japan without her memories. But with the final battle done, it was time for her to return.

* * *

 **Chapter Four: Meeting Father Cornello**

"Who are you?" Kagome repeated with a glare. Upon seeing her piercing look, Al held up his hands to show her they meant no harm.

"W-we're not going to hurt you guys. There's no need to be defensive," Al said a bit scared by the girl. She looked like a normal girl with her appearance, but something about her told Al not to make her angry.

Kagome stood her ground while she studied the suit of armor. ' _I was right. The man—no, boy— in the suit sounds like a little kid, but can I trust him?'_ Kagome thought while feeling closely at his aura. ' _He doesn't seem to pose any threat to them. He seems to have a soft, kind soul.'_ Kagome continued to stand in front of Rose, but relaxed her stance a bit. "Do you promise not to cause Rose any harm?" she asked.

Al quickly responded, "Y-yes, we promise. We're not bad people." Kagome nodded and finally fully released her protective stance.

"OK, I'm going to trust you, but if you ruin that trust," she sent a sharp glare in their direction. "I can't say for certain you guys won't be harmed."

Al began to sweat from her threat. Even though she just seemed to be a little girl, something about her said she wasn't lying. "We w-won't."

Kagome's glared quickly turned into a bright smile. "Good!" she replied cheerfully.

The whole time his brother was talking to the stranger girl, Ed was observing the two girls like he saw her do to them. ' _It seems the girl named Rose is just another civilian who has been captured by this so-called Father's teachings. She's just another blind follower.'_ His gaze shifted to the other girl. ' _But what about her? She seems to not mind the teachings of god, but she also has the eyes of an Alchemist, who don't normally believe in unrealistic things such as gods.'_ Ed smirked when he saw the kind of fighting spirit she had. ' _It seems she's not going to be easy to handle if things get rough around here.'_

After Al promised to not harm them, Ed finally stepped forward to ask his question, "What's the whole deal with this Father and his god?" The tone of Edward's voice was very sarcastic and uncaring. "I heard he claims to be able to bring the dead back to life." Ed had to try to hold back a scoff when he said that. If he wanted to get information from these girls, it was probably a good idea not to upset them by demeaning their god.

Kagome was going to speak up and tell him that god wasn't the kind of being who would do that, let alone give a human that ability, but before she could speak up, Rose pushed passed her and clapped her hands together with glee. "Oh, yes! Father Cornello has been blessed by the Sun God and promised me he would use his powers to bring my love back to life. Doesn't that sound amazing?" Rose had little stars in her eyes as she spoke of the Father. She then brought her attention back to the two brothers. "Are you guys interested in Letoism?"

"Nope, sorry, I'm not really the religious type," Ed replied without hesitation.

Rose gave the boy a sad look as she put a hand to her heart. "But to know God is to know hope, and I'm sure if you begin to believe, Leto will surely grant your wishes as well! Maybe he will help you get taller!" she proclaimed without tact.

Kagome sweat-dropped at her words. "Rose…" she was about to reprimand her for her words when she noticed how the small blond was being held back by the larger suited boy. ' _It seems he's heard that sort of remark before,'_ she thought with a chuckle. ' _Maybe I misjudged the two boys. They don't seem all that bad.'_

Edward walked to one of the benches and plopped himself down on the seat while putting one leg over the other. "So you think this lowly man can bring someone back to life, huh," he said with a degrading tone to his voice.

Kagome was a bit irked by his remark. ' _Maybe I'm wrong about them again...'_ She didn't necessarily believed in Leto or this Father, but she knew Rose did and that remark was not going to make her very happy.

Rose suddenly got defensive. "Lowly?" she said with anger. "How dare you disrespect Father Cornello like that!"

Edward was not put off by her anger, instead, he just chuckled and took out a small leather book and began reading out the percentages of elements, which Kagome guessed formed a specific compound, but she wasn't sure what.

As the blond boy kept reading out the ingredients to this mystery scientific recipe, Kagome noticed the lost expression on Rose's face, who was not familiar with alchemy in any way. Kagome was pretty knowledgeable with the science, but having not practiced for so long has made her unknown to many things. ' _I wonder what those elements make?'_ she thought while trying to put the pieces together in her mind. ' _Have I made the compound before?'_ After thinking about it for a little longer, Kagome had an idea to the compound.

Edward finally got done with the list and lowered the book from his eyes, which were now filled with sadness. Despite the contradictory in his eyes, the boy smiled while letting out a chuckle, but there really wasn't any humor in it. "Those ingredients I just read out are the chemical makeup of the human body for the average adult. It's been calculated down to the last microgram.

But even with this information known, there hasn't been a single report of someone successfully creating a human life." Ed looks up at Rose with fire in his eyes. "And you're telling me something modern science can't do, you can do with prayer?" Ed stared at the girl with piercing eyes.

Rose step forward. "Father Cornello told us if we followed God, our prayers will be answered," Rose stated. "Just because non-believers like you and the other scientists couldn't perform miracles like this, doesn't mean the almighty God can't do it!" Rose yelled back with tears beginning to build in her eyes.

Kagome looked at her sadly. "Rose…" Kagome wanted to help her friend, but even she knew gods don't usually do those sort of things for humans. It's just wishful thinking on her part.

Ed chuckled underneath his breath. "You're right, we are non-believers. Alchemists are scientists. We don't believe in unprovable concepts like creators or gods. We observe the structures and laws of this world and learn from them so that we might to be able to create those things. Scientists don't just believe objects can be created from nothing." Ed stood up and walked up to the statue of Leto. "Hope and prayer don't get things done, Rose. The only way to get results is to perform experiments and learn from your mistakes." Ed looked up at the face of Leto. "It's funny how most scientist don't believe in such things as gods, and yet we're able to do things that allow us to play gods ourselves."

"You think you're on the same level as God?" Rose asked, disbelievingly. "What sheer arrogance!"

Kagome was upset at the blond boy. What he said wasn't wrong, but his way of delivery was a bit rash, especially saying those sort of things to such a faithful believer like Rose. Kagome stepped a bit closer to the boy. "There are times when what you say isn't completely wrong, but you should really watch with how you say it. It might upset certain people you don't want to upset," Kagome advised.

Ed turned to her and raised one of his eyebrows. "Like you?" He walks closer to her and gives her a knowing smirk. "You seem like you know more than you want to share."

Kagome kept a straight face despite his taunting. "You should be careful of the kind of information you dig up. Some of it might come back to bite you later." Kagome reaches and puts a hand on his right arm. "But it seems you already know about that, don't you."

Ed's eyes grew with surprise before tearing his arm away from her and walking away, closer to the other two. "I'm sorry for my rudeness, but do you think your Father can make a naive, young alchemist like me believe?" he asked Rose. Kagome gave the alchemist a look behind his back. She knew there was another reason for him asking about the Father than just wanting to believe. But being Rose as she is, did not see passed his ruse.

"Oh, yes!" Rose clapped her hands together with excitement. "I'm sure if you met the Father he should surely make you believe. I'll take you to him," Rose began to walk to the side door and gestured for everyone to follow her. "You should come too, Kagome. You haven't met the Father yet either."

"Don't worry, I'm following," Kagome replied. Ever since she got to this town, she wanted to meet this Father. There was something about him that didn't sit well with her.

The three guests followed Rose down a corridor until they were met with another man dressed similarly to the Father, no doubt a worker for the church. The man turned to Rose and gave her a smile. "Hello, Rose, how have your prayers been going?" the man asked good-heartedly.

"Hello, Brother Cray." Rose gave the man a smile and replied back, "It's been a slow process, but I never stop believing in the Father or the mighty Leto."

The man known as Cray chuckled. "That's wonderful to hear." He then suddenly noticed that she had a few guests with her. "And who might these friends of yours be?" he asked.

Rose gestured to her guests. "This is my friend, Kagome, who's been in town for the past week, and the other two are some boys I met at the chapel, they said they wanted to meet the Father to see his miracles," Rose introduced them.

Cray stared at the two boys. ' _A young boy and a man in a large suit of armor...Could these be…'_ He gave the guests a smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you all. And what might your names be?" he asked the two boys.

Ed smirked and tapped his brother on the belly of the armor. "We're the Elric brothers and we've heard quite a bit about this Father and wanted to see if he could help us poor deprived children to see the ways of the Lord," Ed replied, clearly lying through his teeth, but it seems both Rose and the man were buying the act, while Kagome did not believe a single word he said and instead rolled her eyes at the blond's statement.

The man smiled and clapped his hands together. "Wonderful, I'll go ask if the Father can see you; but be warned, if he can't, don't get too upset, he is quite the busy man."

Ed gave him a deadpanned look. "I'll try not to cry too much," he said sarcastically.

The man walked away as the four teens decided to get to know a bit more about each other. Ed turned to the Xingese girl with fierce eyes. "So what's your story?" Ed asked a bit rudely. "You don't seem to be from around here."

Kagome didn't really feel like telling this rude boy, but decided to do it anyway, it's not like he'll really get much information from what she'll say. "I'm a wanderer, and as you heard from Rose before, I've been here for a week, but it may be time for me to leave soon," Kagome replied.

Al looked down at her. "A wanderer? So you don't stay at home much, I'm guessing," Al suggested.

Kagome chuckled at his notion. "Not quite. Being a wanderer means I have no home to go back to." Kagome stared off with a sad smile. "I've been away from this country for so long, I came back to see my whole town destroyed." Al gave her a sad look, even though no one could really tell through his helmet. "The only person I can even hope to possibly find is my father, but even then I have no idea if he's still alive. Maybe my journey will be futile in the end, wandering the world looking for a dead man."

There was a silence among them before Kagome suddenly changed the topic with a smile. "So what are your stories?" she asked. "It's only fair to share yours since I shared mine."

Ed opened his mouth to respond when the man came back. "Father Cornello said he will see you now. Please follow me." The man began walking down the hall to where the Father was supposedly waiting.

Ed looked at the Xingese girl. "I'll tell you later, but right now we have some business to take care of," he whispered to her so the man in front could not hear them. Since this Cray-guy worked for the priest, Ed doubted he could be trusted.

Brother Cray turned to the group with a kind smile on his face. "It is fortunate for you guys that the Father is willing to see you with his busy schedule," the man told the children while leading them down the hall.

"Oh, yes! We are all very excited to see Father Cornello," Rose cheerfully stated. "Right, Kagome?" She looks toward her friend.

"Uh, yes." Kagome puts on a fake smile. "I'm so excited to finally meet this Father you always talk about."

"That's good to hear, young sisters of God," the man replied, before turning around and letting a smirk spread across his face. ' _What fools they are.'_ The man led them toward a large wooden door with the symbol of the Sun God on it. "This way please." He gestured to the door.

The large wooden doors opened to a dimly lit room that gave off a haunting feel to it. Kagome looked around a bit wearily while the brothers walked in with confidence. ' _I don't like the feel of this place,'_ Kagome thought as she looked around the room. ' _What kind of priest keeps a dungeon looking area in their church?'_

The five of them passed a couple of guards in white on either side of the door as they walked further into the room. Kagome continued to look around as Ed told the man guiding them that they wouldn't take too much of Father Cornello's time since he is so busy with his job.

" _Yeah, I'm sure he's sooo busy creating new bullshit to tell people,"_ Kagome thought, bitterly.

"Good then it's agreed that we will make this quick," the man said in a somewhat sinister tone. Kagome's head quickly whipped toward the direction of the man as he began to reach for his gun.

Ed looked behind him when he heard the two guards at the door close the large wooden door they had come from. When he heard a familiar click, he quickly turned around to see the barrow of a gun pointed straight at his brother's head. Since he was distracted by the weapon, the two guards from earlier used their spears to stab at the ground in front of him and keep him in place by making an 'X'.

Rose looked horrified as she questioned the brother for his actions. "Brother Cray, what is this? What do you think you're doing?" she asked the man she trusted with a quivering voice.

"Rose, these heathens have come to ensnare and discredit the father. They're evil! This is God's will," Cray spat out as he kept a strong hold on the gun pointed at the suit of armor.

"Brother Cray…" Rose's voice was filled with disbelief at what was happening.

"Well, like you said, let's make this quick." Ed swiftly elbowed the man to his left in the stomach, making in fall down in pain, and while the other was distracted, grabbed the other man's arm and flipped him over his body and onto the ground in front of him. Before everyone knew it, Ed had subdued the two men that had him "trapped" earlier.

"W-what? How—" Brother Cray watched with surprise, but was quickly silenced with a punch to his face by the suit of armor. The gun the Brother was holding fell and slid to the base of Rose's feet, making her jump from the close proximity to the deadly weapon.

While Ed held down one of the guards, the one he had elbowed earlier tried to run away, but luckily Kagome heard his clumsy footsteps and ran after him to send a swift kick to his back, causing the man to fall right on his face and go unconscious from the hard impact of the ground. "Who said you were allowed to run away?" she asked the man even though she knew he couldn't hear her.

Ed gave her a thumbs up. "Thanks for the help."

Kagome turned away from him and walked back to Rose. "I didn't do it for you, shortie."

A vein popped on Ed's head, but before he could act out his anger, a voice interrupted them. "What is this commotion," an unfamiliar voice asked. The four of them turned as they watched the Father walk out of the shadows at the front of the room. "Ah, the Fullmetal Alchemist, welcome to the home of our sacred order," the Father greeted.

Upon seeing him, a warm and excited smile spread across Rose's face. "Father Cornello!"

Cornello ignored her greeting and looked at his men unconscious on the ground with a watchful eye before letting another of his smiles grace his face. "I must apologize for my disciples' behavior. It would seem they've been misguided."

Edward glared at the Priest. "OK, let's say I believe you weren't the one guiding them. What next?" he asked the Father.

"Have you come to learn about Letoism?" the Father asked in a kind-hearted and respectful tone, which was all fake.

"Well, there are a few things that I'm curious about, like how you're using second-rate alchemy to deceive your followers." Rose looked over at Ed with a shocked expression on her face, not just for the statements he had made, but also the disrespectful tone that he took against the Father.

"How dare you accuse the Father like that," Rose chided him. Ed didn't even pay her any mind when the subject of his interest was right in front of him.

"My dear boy, I don't know what you mean," the Father replied, clearly lying through his teeth. ' _What nonsense is he trying to pull now?'_ Kagome thought, trying to not say anything so that she wouldn't be noticed by the Father. If she is able to keep her presence hidden, then she will have time to react because the Father won't be focused on her at all.

She listened as the Father claimed what Ed found as alchemy was really the doings of the Sun God this whole town worshipped. She watched as the Father cupped his hands over the other and saw the flash of a red light between them before opening his hands to reveal a small stone statue of their god. "Look again. Can alchemy create something out of nothing in this way?" Rose watched the performance with elation on her face. ' _I knew it! The Father's miracles are real! He'll definitely fulfill his promise and bring my love back to life,'_ Rose naively thought.

Ed's voice chimed in, "Yeah, that's what I didn't get at first. How can you perform transmutations that ignore the law of equivalent exchange?" Ed rubbed his head with feigned bewilderment.

Cornello was getting more upset as time went on. The Father slammed down the statue onto the stone railing from where he stood—about eight feet higher than the floor. "It's not alchemy, you insolent boy!" the Father shouted.

Ed ignored the enraged Father. "But then I started thinking about it. If you somehow were able to acquire a certain object that could amplify your alchemy, one that is said to make the impossible, possible…" Ed looked up at the Father. "That would explain everything."

The Father's eyes narrowed at the statement the young boy had said. "My boy, I don't know what you mean."

Ed stood his ground and glared at the Father. "Do you not?" Ed looked down at the red ring on his finger. "I'm talking about the Philosopher's Stone on your finger." Ed began walking toward where the Father stood. "I've been looking for that," he said as he made his way closer to the priest.

The Father wanted to shield the ring from the boy's piercing eyes, but he decided against it. Maybe if he continued to play this out, the boy will think it was not the thing he was looking for. "The ring is just a ring," Cornello stated. "The reason I can perform these miracles is because I am God's humble servant and was blessed with these powers. It is he alone whom gave me these powers in order to help those without the means to help themselves." Kagome wanted to spit on the man for saying such crap about the god and the fake power he wielded.

Kagome stepped up, she didn't want to stay in the sidelines if the gods were being talked about in this manner. As a true daughter of God, she was going to show this Father what it truly meant to have God's power on your side. "Wow, Father," Kagome began to say, causing everyone's heads to face her. Ed stopped walking in order to turn and listen to the girl, curious of why she decided to speak up and draw attention to herself. "I didn't know God was such a charitable fellow. I thought they couldn't favor just one person," she said in a somewhat sarcastic tone.

The Father hadn't really noticed the dark-haired girl there until now since he was too focused on the rude teenage boy who had challenged him earlier. "My girl, for those who are loyal and just, the great Sun God Leto will bless whoever are under his care, but only those with the strength to wield his power will be granted some of his might," Cornello explained with another one of his smiles on his face.

Kagome looked at her nails, clearly showing she had no real interest in what he had to say. "So what you're saying is that you are one of those who are 'strong enough' as you had stated to have these powers?" she asked him as she met her stern eyes to his.

A shiver ran down the Father's spine from having the girl's gaze meet his. Something about the girl was not sitting well with him. She seemed like an average girl, but something about her presence frightened him down to his core. Despite his slight fear, the Father nodded slowly at her question, causing a smirk to appear on Kagome's face. "Then let's put that to the test, shall we?"

* * *

 **Red:** That's it for now, everyone! Thank you for reading, and as always, please let me know what you thought about this chapter in the **REVIEWS!**

Until next time, everyone! \\(^o^)/


	5. Chimera

**Red:** I'm glad you guys liked the last chapter. And I'm sorry for leaving you guys on a cliffhanger, but if I kept writing, the chapter was going to be _**way**_ too long. :P (The problem with this is that the longer the chapter is, the less I want to edit it, which also means the chapters usually take _even longer_ to be updated.)

The reason I don't update this story very often is because I'm a horrible person with nine unfinished stories on three different accounts, which means I have many people asking me to update other stories besides this one. I try to rotate updates for my stories so that I can update other stories and not just focus on only one.

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or Fullmetal Alchemist, if that wasn't obvious enough. They belong to their rightful owners. (I mean, why would the creators be on this website writing fanfics?)**

 **Notice!** This is going to follow the story of Brotherhood, but will probably make references back to some things that happened in the first series.

 **Summary:** After the final battle with Naraku, Kagome was sent home...not to the place she had come to know, but instead to the place she had forgotten—Amestris. Many years ago, she had saved her father from having to see Truth by sacrificing herself in his place, causing her to end up in Japan without her memories. But with the final battle done, it was time for her to return.

* * *

 **Chapter Five: Chimera**

Father Cornello cupped his hands and a bright red static light erupted before them. Once the light faded, the Father now held a assault rifle in his hand. "Insolent brat, you really think you can do anything against the power of Leto? You must be daft and overconfident in your abilities." He took aim at the girl. "Can your abilities save you from bullets made of solid lead?"

Kagome became slightly nervous by the sight of the gun pointed at her, but on the outside she remained calm and collected as she continued to stare at the Father with a unimpressed look. No matter how nervous she felt, she knew not to let her discomposure show; the enemy must never see her weaknesses.

Kagome wanted to sigh at her situation. It was just her sort of luck to be risking her life for others not even a month back in this world. With that thought on her mind, she decided to continue playing her little game and let a smirk appear on her lips as she stared the Father down. "What's wrong? Not used to someone telling you that you're a fake?" She bent down to do a dramatic bow with one of her arms over her chest and the other stretched out as her eyes never left the Father's face. "I'm sorry I didn't pay the proper respects to you," she said mockingly with the grin still on her face.

Ed looked at the girl with a nervous expression on his face as he began to sweat bullets for her safety. "What are you doing, stupid? Do you want to get killed?" he harshly whispered at her. At times like this he wondered if this was what his friends felt like whenever he did something stupid in dangerous situations like this? Despite the most stupid of things he has ever done, this girl is freaking crazy to taunt a man with a rifle pointed straight at her.

She payed Ed no mind and continued to pull at the Father's nerves. "Well, Father?" she questioned with a raised eyebrow. She had a plan, but she hoped it actually worked. During Cornello's speech in the square, she had discovered something interesting about his so-called "powers" and she hoped what her gut was telling her was correct, or else she was done for.

"You must have a death wish, girl. With a pull of this trigger, you will be completely destroyed," Cornello gloated, clearly annoyed by all the disrespect he was getting from the girl.

Kagome had a disinterested look on her face. "I really don't think your fake powers is going to do me any harm," she said in a bored tone, trying to make it seem she wasn't scared at all. She needed to make this Father crack so that he will shoot her and allow her to test out her theory. If she was incorrect on her hunch, then she was as good as dead, so she really hoped she wasn't.

Ed was watching the Father to make sure when he saw him try to shoot the girl, Ed was going to have to put a barrier up quickly to protect the girl from being killed. His focus on the father was cut when a voice whispered his name. He turned to the Xingese girl who was still keeping an eye on the Father. "Hey, shortie." A vein popped on Ed's head from the nickname, but he didn't yell out since right now was neither the right time or place for it. "When you think he's about to shoot me, make a barrier for you guys. And make sure to keep Rose safe." Ed was about to ask what she was going to do for protection before she beat him to it. "Don't worry about me. I have a plan." He looked at the back of her head with unease. He wasn't so sure her plan was going to work on an assault rifle to the face, but all he could do was trust that she knew what she was doing.

Once she got her message across, she thought it was the time to test out her theory. "You gloat so much about this wonderful power you possess, but you don't have the guts to use it," she yelled up at him. She shrugged her shoulders and held out her hands as she sighed. "I guess this God of yours didn't actually give you any real powers after all. It's all just for show for your followers."

Both she and Ed watched as as the Father's body tensed up from hearing her words, signalling what he was about to do. "Don't have the guts? You, girl, must have a death wish." Cornello positioned his gun. "It was a shame I have to do this. You would've made a wonderful priestess under Leto." Kagome rolled her eyes at his statement. "Don't say I didn't warn you, little girl," he said before pulling the trigger.

Once his finger was on the trigger, Ed moved to the side to pull his brother and Rose behind a wall made from the material of the floor using his alchemy. "What about Kagome?" Rose yelled panically.

Ed leaned against the wall as he heard bullets firing passed them. "She told me she would be alright and that I had to protect you two," Ed replied, waiting for an opening so that he could look around the wall to make sure the girl was still alive.

After hearing his words, Rose clapped her hands together and began to pray for the safety of her friend. Ed wanted to roll his eyes at what she was doing. 'Like praying to a God will save someone,' he thought. 'But if it makes her feel better, then I won't stop her.'

After a little bit, the shots stopped coming and the three people behind the wall decided to peek around it to see the damage. Once the dirt cloud cleared, everyone saw that the floor and walls were littered with holes from the shower of bullets that pelted them, all except a circled area around the dark-haired girl who still stood strong in the middle of the floor surrounded by a pink dome shield. "Is that all?" she asked the flustered Father with a huge grin on her face. "I was expecting more with all your talk, but I guess there's only so much to expect from a fake Father."

"W-what's going on?" Cornello asked with slight fear in his eyes. 'Who was she? _What_ was she?' Father tried to shoot her again, but his gun was out of bullets. "How are you still alive?"

Kagome showed him her hand as she let a pink energy gather in her palm. "This proves how truly a fake you are. My powers are derived from purity and light, so if you were truly a priest, your powers would've been able to get passed my shield." She let the light disappeared from her hand. "I wasn't completely sure if my powers would truly be able to protect me from you, but I wanted to test out this theory I made when I first saw you in the town square. I always have a thin layer of my energy shielding me from impure energy, so it was very peculiar when one of the flower petals you made with your so called 'holy' powers could not touch me," Kagome explained with a smirk and began walking closer to where the priest stood.

The Father clenched his hands. "It seems there are more surprises to you than I first thought, girl!" he spat out. "And even though I can't kill you, I can still kill those friends of yours!" He waved his hand to the side in a dramatic fashion. "My creation! Kill those pesky brats will you?" After he said that a roar could be heard from the shadows of the room.

The trained fighters in the room whipped their head towards the direction the roar came from and watched as a lion with the tail of snake came out of the shadows. Kagome's eyes went wide. "A chimera," she muttered with a slight hitch to her breath.

The Father chuckled as the chimera began making its way towards the trio behind the stone wall. "That's right. I've made the legendary creature—the chimera."

Rose looked horrified at the monster. "F-Father...what are you doing?" she asked as she began to back slowly away from the creature. She tried to move as far away as she could, but her back soon hit the stone wall made from alchemy, trapping her in front of the chimera.

"Rose, my dear, you have served God well and I will make sure your soul ends up in Heaven when you die," he said in his usual fake-priest tone. "Your sacrifice to help catch these heathens will not be forgotten." Upon hearing his words, which were basically the words to her funeral, Rose began to have a terrified look in her eyes as tears streamed down her face.

Kagome turned to her weeping friend and then back to the Father with hatred in her eyes. "How dare you! Attacking us—" She gestures to Ed, Al, and herself. "—is one thing because we're at least fighters who knew what we were getting ourselves into when we joined this fight, but attacking an innocent person is another issue! She's even your disciple who openly followed your word. How could you throw her to the side so easily?"

Cornello continued to have a carefree smile on his face. "Followers are just pawns in this game of life. If one is destroyed and removed from game, no one will really miss it. You will learn eventually, little girl, that some pawns will have to be sacrificed in order to win a game." Every word that he said stung Rose more and more. He only saw her as a useless pawn? At this point her legs already gave way to her despair and she sat on on the ground with tears flowing from her eyes.

Al looked at the crying girl on the ground. "Rose…" He didn't know that girl that well, but he still felt bad for her. The man she looked up to and the person who always gave answers to her questions had just said she was just a useless piece in his game.

Kagome clenched her hands at her side. "I've lived through enough to know that when there's a battle, it's impossible to protect everyone. It's impossible to have everyone come out of it unhurt and alive," she whispered as her bangs shadowed her eyes. "I've seen many people die right in front of me: friends, family, many good people…" She looked up and stared into the Father's eyes as if staring into his soul. "Despite all of that, I will always try to prevent casualties. As long as I'm alive, I will keep as many people from dying in front of me as I can. I may not be able to save everyone, but sitting around and doing nothing will cause many more lives to perish; lives I can prevent as long as I go against people like you—" She pointed at the Father. "—who throw away the lives of others so carelessly."

The Father laughed at her again. "What a noble ideal you have, but too bad it will get you and your friends killed. Now my chimera dispose of those children for me," he commanded as he waved his hand and a bright light came from his ring. The same light shines in the chimera's eyes, telling everyone that the beast was being controlled by the crazed Father.

Kagome turned to the suit of armor. "Hey, kid, can you carry Rose out of here and get her to somewhere safe?"

Al looked caught off guard by her sudden order but nodded his head. "Uh, yes," he responded and picked up the shocked girl still sitting on the ground. "Come on, Rose, it's too dangerous for you here." Once Al had got Rose into his arms he began to run away from the creature. Sadly for Al, the sudden movement attracted the beast's attention, which caused the creature to swipe at him and make contact with his armor. The sudden force of the claws caused Al to be pushed forward and knock is helmet off.

"Alphonse!" Ed watched as his brother was knocked down. "You damn bastard cat!" Ed jumped and roundhouse kicked the chimera with his metal leg, causing the beast to fly a few feet and smash into the ground.

Rose looked at her injured savior with horror, half-expecting blood to start pouring from his helmet. Everyone except Ed thought the boy in the suit of armor was injured, so it was a shock when the suit of armor stood up. "That wasn't very nice," Al said nonchalantly as he picked up his helmet. "Those claws damaged my helmet."

Ed inspected the helmet and clapped his hands together before putting one against the helmet, mending the metal so that it was fixed and looked new again. "That's better. You got to be more careful, Al."

"Sorry, brother."

"What is this?" Father Cornello bellowed. "He should be injured or dead!"

Ed pound the chest of Alphonse's armor. "A little swipe to the head isn't going to knock my brother down. He's pretty sturdy."

"B-but how?" Rose asked. Al bent down to show everyone the empty space in his armor. Rose covered her mouth with her hands in shock. "T-there's no body in there."

Before Al could answer, the chimera had gotten up and swiped at Edward, who sensed the beast too late, which allowed the chimera to slash his left leg with his claws, causing the claws to snap off. Cornello smirked as the more annoying of the two brothers finally took some damage, but his smirk quickly went away when he realized that the boy was still standing.

"How is that possible that you're still standing? Those claws are strong enough to cut through iron!" Cornello bellowed.

"Iron, huh." Ed kicked the chimera in the face with his metal leg. "Too bad my leg is made of steel!"

While Ed was fighting, Kagome helped Rose stand up. "Rose, I need you to get out of here. It's far too dangerous for you to stay here."

Rose gripped Kagome's hands in hers. "What about you?"

Kagome gently touched her hands together before reaching into her bag at her side and touching some materials that was inside. A pink light glowed brightly from the top of her bag as she pulled out a full sized bow and a few arrows.

Rose watched with shocked eyes as a bow was pulled out of her shoulder bag. "H-how? Are you blessed by the Sun God Leto as well?" she asked, still staring at the bow with shock.

"No, I'm not affiliated with this God you worship. This talent is just alchemy—a science," Kagome explained as she gave her a gentle smile. "We've only known each other for about a week now. There are many things you don't know about me, but just know that I am on your side." With that said, Kagome pulled away from Rose and notched an arrow in her bow and aimed it at the eye of the chimera. She put some of her holy energy into the arrow before releasing it at the beast with amazing precision. To Everyone's' surprise, the side of the chimera's face exploded as a pink light hit the eye of the beast. "It is a science, but I like to add some of my spiritual powers to my science," Kagome said to Rose who was starring in amazement of her friend's skills.

Ed watched with wide eyes as the chimera's face tore from the sheer power. He turned his head towards the source of the energy was surprised to see the Xingese girl standing strong and confident with a bow in her hands like a trained warrior with many years of experience.

He continued to stare in awe until the mouth of the damaged chimera was right next to his face about to bite down on his head. Due to him being experienced in fighting, Ed was able to sidestep back and use is arm to shield his face so that the lion bit down onto his arm. "You like the taste of that, kitty?" Ed sarcastically said. The chimera's good eye widened with shock from the intense look in the human's eyes. "Then why don't you get a good tase!" Ed kicked the underside of the lion's chin, throwing the creature onto his back.

"Shortie, get back!" Ignoring the name calling, Ed quickly jumped back from the chimera. After he was farther away, another arrow surrounded by pink light hit the body of the chimera, instantly turning the carcass into particles.

Cornelo clenched his hands into fists. "Impudent brats!" he spat out. "I never expected all of you to survive my chimera, but I guess if I want someone dead, then I just have to do it myself." A red flash covered the Father until is dissipated and he held a minigun.

Ed saw the gun and immediately ran towards Al. "Everyone run!" he yelled as he ran ahead to make a door using his alchemy. Al wasn't far behind while carrying Rose in his arms and Kagome running at his side.

Kagome's eyes widened. 'He can use alchemy without a transmutation circle too?' she thought before sweat-dropping at seeing what he had created. "Was it really necessary to make a door right next to another door?"

"When you are the one in the lead, then you can do whatever you want. I thought making my own way out was faster than trying to find a door," Ed retorted back, not losing his stride in his running.

Kagome shook her head at his response, but let the subject drop since more followers of the Father were trying to block them at the end of the hall. The followers stood strong with cocky smirks on their face, probably thinking a couple of teenagers couldn't do too much harm to them. Their expressions did a complete turn when the blond kid transmuted his arm into a weird looking blade that looked like it belonged in a bad RPG game. 'What horrible taste," she thought.

While his brother was terrorizing the men, Al just ran through the crowd while carrying Rose in his arms. "Pardon me. I'm sorry," he apologized as he kicked the guys away, knocking them out from the impact from his metal foot. The three of them easily got away from the Father's followers since all of them were common civilians without any knowledge of alchemy.

* * *

 **Red:** Thank you for reading! Please let me know what you guys thought in the **reviews!**

Again, sorry for my slow updates. (^-^;)


	6. Revealing the Fake

**Red:** I actually had this chapter written for a long time, but I never finished editing the little bit I had left and posted it. :P At least I'm posting it now after the long wait. ^-^;

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or Fullmetal Alchemist, if that wasn't obvious enough. They belong to their rightful owners. (I mean, why would the creators be on this website writing fanfics?)**

 **Notice!** This is going to follow the story of Brotherhood, but will probably make references back to some things that happened in the first series.

* * *

 **Chapter Six: Revealing the Fake**

Ed turned to his brother. "Al, do you think you can find something to project the sound of a microphone all around town with?" he asked as he kept running down the hall slightly ahead of the group, he turned his head to one wall then to another as if looking for something in particular.

Al nodded. "I remember there's a bell tower at the top of this church, we could use the metal to transmute it into a speaker to help amplify the audio once the microphone is connected."

Ed smirked. "Perfect. I bet there's a microphone in the office of the fake Father so we can use that." The brothers shared a look of understanding, knowing what must be done in order to reveal that the Father is a fake to his followers all around town.

Kagome looked at the two of them with a confused look on her face. "What do you plan to do?" she asked. Instead of answering her, Ed just sends her another smirk her way, his face clearing saying 'you'll see.' Kagome huffed when he wouldn't tell her his plan.

The four of them continued to make their way through the halls opening random doors trying to find the office. Once they had located the right room, Ed set up the microphone and placed the mic part on the floor in front of the desk. He walked over to the window behind the desk and looked up at the bell tower. "Hey, Al. Do you think you can catch this if I throw it to you up there?" he asked his brother.

Al nodded. "I think so, but what if he comes while you wait for me to get up there?" Ed looked at the wire in his hand with a thoughtful look. 'That's right it will take Al some time to get up to the tower and he couldn't exactly jump out of the window and up onto the roof with Rose in his arms.'

Kagome walked over and took the wire from Ed's hand. "Here, I'll jump up and start setting this bell up and wait for Al to get up there with Rose. I'll keep a close eye out for when things start getting nasty," she told him as she climbed onto the windowsill. She looked towards Al, "You should head up too, kid." With that said, she jumped up to the roof with cat-like grace and began running to the bell.

Ed watched as the girl went to work to help him out. "You heard her, Al. You get going and make sure Rose stays safe."

Al nodded. "Right." He quickly got out of the room and began running down the hall to the stairs and up to the roof. After his brother left, Ed made himself comfortable on the desk and put the switch to the mic behind his back and out of view. He had no doubt his plan would work, the Father was such a joke and a fool.

* * *

Al ran up the steps of the tower as Rose bounced a bit in his arms from the motion. "Sorry for the bumpy ride, I'll set you down soon," he told her. Rose just nodded and gripped on for her life.

She knew why he hadn't set her down earlier and let her just follow him instead. It was obvious to her that she wasn't as fit as the two brothers or Kagome. Rose would never be able to keep up with the three of them, she would only hold them back. It seemed to her all she could ever do was pray, she didn't have any strength to achieve what people like them could achieve.

"We're here, Rose," Al told the girl, knocking her out of her thoughts. Al set her down gently as he walked over to Kagome. "You were able to get the bell down yourself?" Al asked, surprised such a small girl was able to lift such a heavy thing.

Kagome huffed and crossed her arms. "I'm not as weak as I look, you know." She also wasn't about to mention she used alchemy to help her out. She didn't want to reveal her being able to use alchemy without a circle just yet, she wanted to use that as an element of surprise.

The two girls watched as the younger brother began assembling the wire together with the bell to prepare the transmutation. Rose looked lost in thought until she finally got the courage to speak up. "How did you lose your body?" she asked with slight hesitation.

Al's movement stopped upon hearing her question. He put the bell down, creating a small thump from the heavy metal hitting the stone floor. With a soft voice, he replied, "No matter what the Cornello told you, Rose, just know that my brother and I aren't evil." He looked up at the sky. "We just wanted our mother back, we wanted to live happily with her again. See her smile and feel her warmth. All we wanted was our family together again…" Al looked down at his hands. "But that obviously didn't happen. Our transmutation had failed, and what we created that night wasn't even human." He gripped his hands into a fist. "We learned our mistake the hard way. And because of that mistake, I lost the ability to feel warmth on my skin along with many other things. You can't bring people from the dead, Rose. Not ever," he finished.

Rose quivered with sadness and disbelief. "T-that's not true! Father Cornello said—He promised—He promised he would—"

Kagome was listening quietly this whole time, but she finally decided to speak up. "Rose!" The dual-colored haired girl jumped from the stern voice and turned to her friend with surprise, not expecting Kagome to shout at her. "After all that has happened today, do you still believe every word your Father has said?" Kagome asked her with bitterness in her tone and her eyes. "He tried to kill you, Rose. He was just using you, willing to throw you away like you were nothing, and you're still willing to follow a guy like that?" Tears began to build up from the raw emotion she was displaying, but none of them fell. "You need to learn that some people just don't come back. You need to face the truth and just realize that you will never see them again. Never…" The last part was just above a whisper, too quiet for either of them to hear over the gust of wind blowing around them.

Rose gripped her hands together. She knew everything Kagome said was right and she shouldn't follow Father Cornello anymore, but something in Kagome's words seemed as if she was speaking from experience. Rose was learning more and more in just one day that she didn't know Kagome at all. Despite the week spent together, it was as if she was meeting Kagome for the first time.

Al looked at the raven-haired girl with wonder. Has she experienced the same loss as he and his brother? She spoke as if she has. Maybe he will ask her about it later.

He turned back to Rose. "A simple concept in Alchemy, Rose, is equivalent exchange. There is no knowing what measures to the equivalent of a human soul, and as you can see, even a failed transmutation has a high price that must be paid." Al went back to setting up the bell and drawing the transmutation circle around it. "The price caused me my whole body and my brother's left leg. He must have been in so much pain that day, but despite all that, he still gave up his right arm to bind my soul to this body."

Al paused in his drawing to take off his helmet to show the girls the blood seal. "My brother drew that with his blood. He gave up so much to get my soul back, so now I want to help him get his body back, and he feels the same about getting my body back." Al put his helmet on and went back to finishing the circle. "The road ahead of us isn't an easy one, and we might die along the way, but even with those odds, my brother and I aren't going to give up."

After the circle was done, Al placed the chalk down and looked up at the girls. "Despite his personality, my brother is very caring in his own way. He's determined to help but sometimes does it in the most unorthodox way. You should give him a chance, he's really not the villain you might think he is."

Kagome wanted to roll her eyes at his words, but she didn't. She knew there was truth to the younger brother's statements about his brother. Even though his personality was a little coarse, she could tell Ed had a good heart and was always looking out for others—especially his younger brother.

She smiled and looked off into the distance as the setting sun colored the sky orange. 'It's funny how mature the younger brother is compared to the older one. Maybe Al's right about all he said. He doesn't seem like the lying type so maybe I'll give the shortie a chance.'

* * *

The three of them waited as they heard footsteps through the makeshift speaker signaling to Al to hold the speaker on his shoulder, facing the town. They heard as Ed asked the Father simple questions on why he would stay in such a small town performing miracles when he had such a powerful object like the philosopher's stone at his disposal. After hearing the Father spiel all his plans about making a brainless army of followers willing to die whenever he wanted them to, it was obvious to everyone listening that the Father didn't know he was being recorded, all the things he said was from his soul, no lies could be heard from his tone.

"See, Rose. Now you can hear the true nature of his plans. There were no miracles. He lied to you and everyone." Al stated.

"No…" Rose muttered in disbelief before crying into her hands.

The three of them continued to listen as Ed laughed and revealing that the Father had been projected to the whole town this entire time. There was a lot of yelling on the Father's part, which gave Kagome the cue to stop leaning against the wall and make her back to Ed. "I'm gonna go help your brother out." With that said, she leaped off the balcony the three of them were on and slid down the rooftop until she made it to the edge of the roof right above the window of the room Ed and the Father were in.

She waited until she heard some commotion inside before grabbing the edge of the roof and swinging her body through the window and landing in a crouched position. She looked up and saw Ed had sliced off the gun Cornello had transmuted. "Just face it, you're outclassed here," Ed said cockily as the sliced off gun piece fell on the floor with a heavy thump.

Kagome felt the dark energy coming from the Father's hand pulse with power as Cornello shouted before slapping the pulsing hand to the large broken gun in his other hand to transmute the machine into something else.

She saw Ed do a quick back-spring away from the Father, sensing the danger coming from him as well. After the hand made contact, the two teenagers expected to see something bigger get created by the father, but what surprised them all was how the transmutation failed and the Father's arm had been fused with the gun instead. "A rebound," she and Ed both said at the same time.

The Father grunted in pain from the failed transmutation. "I won't fail and be disgraced like this!" Despite his failed first attempt, Cornello pushed more of his will into the stone on his finger, causing it grow brighter. "I will show you the true power of the chosen adversary of the Sun God Leto!" The Father's body began to mutate and grow in size in front of them.

"Ed get out of the way!" Kagome shouted to warn him, but Ed only had enough time to bring up his metal arm and brace for the impact of the Father. The force had caused the two of them to break through a couple of walls until they eventually smashed into the main chapel area. Luckily, it was during the middle of the day so no one was there worshiping and could've gotten hurt from the impact of the two fighting.

Kagome raced to the large opening in the wall they had made and took her bow from across her chest and notched an arrow in the string just in case there was an opening for her to shoot. She watched as Ed kept jumping out of the way of Cornello's large first. After another hit in his direction, Ed did multiple back-springs, bringing him far enough for Kagome to release her arrow. "Watch out!"

Ed noticed what she was doing and made sure he was a good distance away from Cornello in order to not get hit by the blast of her attack. Kagome released the arrow, but since the Father had heard her warning to Ed, the arrow only hit his arm and not his entire body. The arm that was hit burst into tiny disgusting pieces before disintegrating before their eyes.

Cornello screamed in pain from the attack and turned his angry eyes to the girl. "Insolent brat!" He swatted at her, but before he made impact, she was able to make a quick barrier to protect herself. His hand never made contact with her body due to her being shielded, but the force of his hand had caused some rubbled to be scooped up and fly at her at full speed.

Since her barrier was made with holy energy, it only protected her from things created from dark energy, meaning even though it could protect her from the Father and anything he created, the stone from the chapel was made by man and could not be stopped by her barrier.

Before she could do anything about it, a large piece of rubble flew and hit her on the head, causing her to drop her barrier from the sudden shock. Seeing that she was now open, Cornello let out a sinister smile and smack at her again now that she was vulnerable. The impact caused Kagome's body to fly at one of the pillars in the church before falling on the floor unconscious.

Ed watched everything as if it was slow motion. When he saw her get hit on the head, he tried to run to save her, but he wasn't fast enough to cross the room in time. Ed watched as her back hit a pillar and fall to the ground which made caused anger to surge through him.

"You bastard!" he shouted, putting his hands together and smacking them on the ground. The static of his transmutation moved to the wall closest to the Father and several fists made of stone shot out of the wall and hit the body of the Father. Cornello shouted in pain from the multiple hits as his large body was slammed onto the ground. After the attacks stopped, Cornello quickly got up and glared at the blond boy. "That's right, you bastard. Focus all your attention on me," he taunted. "This fight is ours!"

Cornello smiled sinisterly and aimed to punch the boy with his good arm that hadn't been blown off by that girl's attack. Ed was prepared and braced for the impact with his metal arm. "The Sun God Leto gave me this power himself and he has left me to judge others with my fist of god," Cornello stated, as he punched the boy from the side but was stopped as the boy tried to withstand his attack.

Ed grunted as he kept the large fist at bay. "The fist of god, huh." Ed saw the statue of Leto in the background and got an idea. He pushed away from the Father's fist and quickly ran behind him to the statue. "If that's what you want, then you can have it!" He brought his hands together and slammed them against the wall. A large stone fist came out of where the statue's fist was and smacked into Cornello, sending him crashing onto the floor with a huge amount of force.

* * *

The fighting between Ed and Cornello caused the floor to rumble with each hit. The constant noise and floor movement roused Kagome back to reality. She slowly sat up and put a hand to her aching head. She really needs to be more careful when she fought. It was sort of a miracle she wasn't knocked out for the whole fight.

After rubbing her head, she looked around for her bow. She saw something poking out of the rubble and pulled it out, it was her bow but it had been snapped in half. 'Ah...damn it…' She turned her head to the fight and saw they were too preoccupied with each other to notice her at the moment.

She gently put her two hands together and touched her bow to fix it. She looked around for an arrow and found one. 'The last one...' She wasn't able to fit too many materials in her bag so she only had enough for four arrows and she had already used three so far. 'I have to make the last one count.' Kagome stood up with some difficulty as the hit to the head from earlier made her dizzy.

She continued to watch through hazy eyes as the two of them fought and Cornello punched at Ed. She heard Ed say something to Cornello before running to the back of the room and use alchemy to make the fist of the statue of the Sun God shootout and slam into the large body of Cornello. Once her vision was clear enough, she drew back the string of her bow and released her arrow, putting a lot of her energy into the hit in order to vaporize the monster that was created around the Father. She began to sweat from the strain on her head as the dizziness got worse the more of her power she put into her bow. 'I have to wait until the time is right.'

Once the Father's body was on the ground and momentarily stunned by the huge attack, she let go of the arrow. The arrow flew towards the monster with a bright streak of light as it soared and stuck itself onto Cornello's back.

The two males were taken back from the sudden attack. Ed turned and saw the Xingnese girl breathing hard and sweating from the strain, but otherwise alright. She stumbled a bit and fell to her knees from the pain. He ran to her to helped her up. "Are you alright?" he asked, gripping her shoulders as she made her way back onto her feet.

"I'm fine… Just a little dizzy and tired that's all." He nodded and helped her make her way to the body of Cornello. As they got closer, they watched as the last bits of the monster Cornello was disintegrated, leaving Cornello's human body in their view.

"I thought you had killed him with how bright that light was."

Kagome shook her head. "My powers cannot kill humans. The arrow could've if I was aiming to kill, but the holy magic I encased the arrow with would not do any harm to his human body," she explained. Ed let go of her once he knew she could stand by herself.

He walked over to the Cornello who was slowly becoming conscious again after the attack. Ed pulled the Father up by his head and slammed his skull into his. "Aagh!" the Father cried out with pain.

Ed punched his face. "Shut up! You're lucky you're even alive, now give me the philosopher's stone!" he shouted at him. The stone on Cornello's ring, which once glowed bright red began to dim as it lost its power from being overused. The stone eventually lost all of its glow and fell off the ring and shattered onto the floor.

Ed watched the stone crumble into nothing with shocked eyes. "What the hell? The stone should've been made from a perfect material, how did it break like that?" he asked.

The Father denied knowing anything and from what Kagome could tell, he was telling the truth, the Father was just a puppet in someone else's plans. 'How did he even get the stone in the first place?' she wondered.

Ed released the Father and let him fall back on the ground. "I can't believe we risked our lives for a fake. All this trouble we went through, and Al and I still can't find a way to get our bodies back." Kagome looked at the young boy with sad eyes. Al was right. Despite his attitude, he really cared and was determined to risk his life for his brother.

Cornello was nervous to ask since he could see the disappointment in the blond boy's eyes. "Uh… What about me?"

Kagome narrowed her eyes at him. "What the hell about you? You better be grateful I don't shoot you with another arrow," she bluffed since she was out of arrows. Cornello's skin crawled from the threat.

Ed turned to him. "I don't care what you do! Just get the hell out of here!" Cornello was terrified and quickly crawled away from the two teens. They watched as the joke of a Father ran away like a scared dog with his tail between his legs.

Kagome shook her head. "What a disgrace to Fathers everywhere."

Ed turned away from where the Father ran off and headed to the door leading out of the chapel. "Come on. We have to meet back up with my brother. I have to tell him the news about the stone being a fake," Ed said with his hair covering his eyes. "It seems that no matter how close I think I am to finding the stone, it's always out of my grasp."

Kagome put a hand on his shoulder. "I understand how you feel, but you can't let this get you down. The world is full of disappointments, but you just need to learn to get past them and keep on moving to reach your goal. I'm sure you and your brother will accomplish your goal in the end."

Ed smiled at her—a genuine smile, none of the snarky smiles the two of them shared multiple times. "I know. I made a promise to him and I intend to keep it until I die." Ed looked at the bright sunlight shining through the windows of the chapel. "He's my little brothers, he's all I have left and I intend to protect him."

Kagome gave him an empathetic look. She understood his feeling of wanting to protect family. "That's very noble of you." She patted him on the head like a little kid and smiled at him before walking past him to the door. "Maybe a shortie like you isn't so bad after all."

"Hey! What does that mean?" Ed shouted putting a hand to his head where she had patted him. Kagome laughed and never responded to his question. He always thought girls were confusing, but this one seemed extra confusing to him. He always thought of himself as smart—sometimes even a genius—but no amount of intellect would help him figure out this girl.

* * *

Once they were outside, Al ran up to them. "Brother! How did it go?" he asked.

Ed looked at the ground. "I'm sorry, Al… The stone was a fake, just like the Father." He tapped a metal fist to the chest of his brother's suit. "When I think that we're that much closer to getting our bodies back, it always falls through our fingers." Al was disappointed. How could he not be? They came so far, but nothing came out of it. Kagome watched the brothers with sympathy as she stood a good distance away to give them their space.

While the two boys were grieving in silence, a click was heard from behind them. Three pairs of eyes turned to the noise and saw Rose standing behind them while holding a gun pointed at Ed. "Give me the philosopher's stone!" she shouted.

Kagome was shocked. After the story Al had told her, she was willing to betray them like this? "Rose! What are you doing?" she asked. "Put the gun down, Rose. You're not thinking straight, you don't want to do this!" she shouted at the girl. She didn't want her friend to live with the grief of having shot, or maybe even killed, someone.

"Be quiet!" Rose snapped. "I know what I want and I want the stone that the brothers have!"

Ed stepped up, not afraid of getting shot. "And what do you hope to achieve with the stone? Are you going to try to bring someone back from the dead?" He saw Rose twitch at his statement, letting him know his guess was correct. "Let me tell you, Rose, that people don't come back, not ever. You saw my body from earlier, saw how I'm missing some of my limbs and how my brother is missing his entire body. When you want anything in this world, you best be willing to give up anything to get it—even your life." With that said, Ed calmly walked past Rose with his hands in his pockets, not even slightly worried about her shooting him along the way.

Rose's hand quivered with hesitation. They knew she could never pull the trigger and that's why he wasn't scared. She watched as he walked past her with his little brother not far behind him. She began to cry at her own weakness and inability to do anything. Rose's eyes snapped open when she felt a hand on the gun and her hand holding it up. She looked over and saw the sad eyes of her friend.

"Let go of the gun, Rose," Kagome told her gently while pushing her hand to make her aim the barrel of the gun to the ground.

Rose released the gun with shaking hands and hugged Kagome and gripped at her shirt as she cried. "What do I do, Kagome? What do I do now? What do I have to live for?" she desperately asked her.

Kagome let her cry for a bit before gripping her shoulders to bring her away from her chest so that Rose could meet her eyes. "Rose." Kagome turned her head to the two boys walking away. "Look at those two." Rose turned her head to where she was looking. "Watch how they are able to continue walking ahead, facing the world and all its trials despite having suffered so much already. Ed lost one of his legs and yet he's still willing to stand up and keep moving forward, so why can't you?" she asked softly.

Rose let go of Kagome's shirt to wipe her tears but more tears took their place. Her tears were dying down, but some still kept falling. She watched as the older brother stood strong as he led his brother away. "I still don't know what to do… Who do I follow now?" Rose desperately asked her.

Kagome stood up and held out a hand to help Rose up to her feet. "Maybe it's time you stop being a follower and lead your own path." Rose took her hand and got up on shaky legs. "Just like how I have my own path to walk on, you need to find yours."

Rose wiped away the rest of her tears with the back of your hand. From her words, Rose could tell that Kagome was telling her that she had to leave her and this town. "Where are you going to go?" she asked her friend.

Kagome watched the two brothers. "I don't know... " she stated before turning to her. "But I do know that your path will start after you apologize to those brothers first, don't you think?" she asked with a small smile.

"I suppose you're right... They didn't deserve all the things I said to them," she replied.

"Then let's go and meet up with them before they leave," Kagome replied back while pulling her along by the hand in the direction of the two boys.

* * *

 **Red:** Thank you for reading! Please **review** letting me know what you thought about this chapter or story in general. See you next time! :D

Also please check me out on my tumblr for updates or just anime posts related to the stories I write, or just come to chat with me. :) My name is the same as on here.


End file.
